BOCCACE (Jean). - Lot 11

BOCCACE (Jean). John Boccaccio's Decameron. London [Paris], s.n. [Prault], 1757-1761. 5 volumes in-8, edition illustrated with one engraved title per volume, a portrait of Boccaccio, 110 hors-texte figures, engraved titles and 97 etched culs-de-lampe after Gravelot, Boucher, Eisen and Cochin, by Aliamet, Baquoy, Lemire, Lempereur, Saint-Aubin, Sornique and Tardieu. Copy on Hollande paper, with the printed "initials" on the verso of most plates, characteristic of the first edition, as well as the handwritten initials at the end of the last volume. Bound in full contemporary red morocco, boards framed in triple fillet, smooth spine with faux-nerfs richly decorated with flowers, green morocco title-pieces, fillet on the edges, all edges gilt. "One of the most successful illustrated books of the 18th century" (Cohen, 160). An elegant edition, appreciated for the quality of Antoine Le Maçon's translation. The illustration is considered one of Gravelot's most successful. Ex-libris Charles Toovey ("In folia fructus") and Charles Tennant. (some leaves foxed).